--- title: "What 'Work' Actually Means - and Why It Matters for Process Management | Next Matter" description: "To appreciate the full impact of digitization on work and process management, it helps to consider what 'work' actually means in modern business - and how it has evolved into a fully-digitized framework." lang: en json-ld: | [ { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://nextmatter.com/#organization", "name": "Next Matter", "legalName": "Daizy NM Limited", "url": "https://nextmatter.com", "logo": "https://nextmatter.com/__l5e/assets-v1/aab354c2-e169-46fe-8e9b-0e78438471d3/nextmatter-logo.svg", "description": "Next Matter is the orchestration platform for regulated financial operations - purpose-built for asset managers, fund administrators, and wealth and wealthtech firms, not a generic workflow tool - combining AI agents, your existing systems and human approvals with governance and a complete audit trail.", "sameAs": [ "https://www.linkedin.com/company/nextmatter", "https://www.daizy.com" ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://nextmatter.com/#website", "url": "https://nextmatter.com", "name": "Next Matter", "publisher": { "@id": "https://nextmatter.com/#organization" }, "inLanguage": "en" } ] }, { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "Article", "headline": "What 'Work' Actually Means - and Why It Matters for Process Management", "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Tassilo Karunarathna" }, "publisher": { "@id": "https://nextmatter.com/#organization" }, "datePublished": "2020-08-06", "mainEntityOfPage": "https://nextmatter.com/opinions/meaning-of-work", "inLanguage": "en" }, { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://nextmatter.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Opinions", "item": "https://nextmatter.com/opinions" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "What 'Work' Actually Means", "item": "https://nextmatter.com/opinions/meaning-of-work" } ] } ] } ] --- [![Next Matter Logo](/__l5e/assets-v1/aab354c2-e169-46fe-8e9b-0e78438471d3/nextmatter-logo.svg)](/) - [Solutions](/solutions) [ grid\_view Solutions Overview Personas, capabilities, and proof ](/solutions)[ smart\_toy AI Orchestration Coordinate agents across your stack ](/solutions/ai-orchestration)[ library\_books Workflow Library Remix production-ready workflows ](/remix) Case Studies [ ![Ocorian](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/69a7f71677d8045f0f2d982a/69a7f71677d8045f0f2da4e8_Ocorian_trustbar.svg) Ocorian 1,800 Employees • Fund Administrator ](/case-studies/ocorian)[ ![Trade Republic](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/69a7f71677d8045f0f2d982a/69a7f71677d8045f0f2da4e9_traderpublic_trustbar.svg) Trade Republic 10M Customers • Online Trading Platform ](/case-studies/trade-republic)[ ![b2Venture](/__l5e/assets-v1/40232f5e-b66d-45f6-8d04-8be40304d172/b2venture-logo.png) b2Venture $800mn AUM • Venture Capital Firm ](/case-studies/b2venture)[ ![Swan](/__l5e/assets-v1/ef4919d4-3042-430f-b1a2-10b7da14c889/swan-logo.webp#lh=1500x401) Swan BaaS leader • Embedded Banking Platform ](/case-studies/swan) - [Platform](/platform) [ hub Platform Overview Built for Fund Operations ](/platform)[ build Workflow Builder Build long-running orchestrations ](/workflow-builder)[ smart\_toy AI & Automation Agents, models and guardrails ](/ai-and-automation)[ extension Integrations Core Ledger & Ecosystem Connectivity ](/integrations)[ verified\_user Governance & Audit Approvals and a full audit trail ](/governance-and-audit)[ shield Security SOC 2, ISO 27001, data residency ](/security) - Resources [ forum Ask a Technical Question Chat with the docs AI assistant ](https://help.nextmatter.com/docs/integrate-across-tools?assistant)[ campaign Opinions Perspectives from our team ](/opinions) [Sign in](https://app.nextmatter.com/login) [Talk to us](/book-a-demo) [Home](/) chevron\_right [Opinions](/opinions) chevron\_right Meaning of Work Opinion · Process management # What "work" actually means.  Why it matters for process management To appreciate the full impact of digitization on work, it helps to consider what "work" actually means in modern business - and how it has evolved into a fully-digitized framework. volume\_up Listen to this piece [menu\_book Start reading](#article) ![Tassilo Karunarathna](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/69a7f71677d8045f0f2d982a/69bd46b569174061aebaf791_Tassilo%20-%20website.png) Written by Tassilo Karunarathna Next Matter Read time 5 min Published Jul 9, 2026 F rom factories and shop floors, to field service, office blocks, design studios, and co-working spaces, digitization is changing the way we work. That's equally true for the people involved in planning and designing exactly how work is executed - effectively, business process management. In order to appreciate the full impact of digitization on work, it's helpful to consider the actual meaning of work itself, how we define "work" in modern business, and how work has evolved to fit into a fully-digitized framework today. 01 · Foundations ## What is work? ### Types of work People do all kinds of work, every day, as part of their jobs and in their daily lives. We typically think about work as tasks needing to be done. There are three general types of tasks we can distinguish between: check\_circle Type 01 One-time errand A single, self-contained task. _Buying a gift for a birthday party._ timeline Type 02 One-time project A set of tasks with a defined start and end. _Getting new car insurance._ refresh Type 03 Recurring process Repeatable steps toward the same outcome. _Doing the laundry._ 02 · Definition ## What is a process? A process is a blueprint that consists of a set of work tasks arranged in a sequence to reach a defined objective. Typically, within a process, there are associated persons, teams, or machines that can perform these tasks. If we take the simple example of the laundry process, we know that the objective is to get clean textiles ready for use. The sequence of activities is: The laundry process 01 collect 02 sort 03 load 04 wash 05 dry 06 fold 07 distribute The individual tasks in the process can be taken over by people, machines, or service providers, depending on the setup. A _process instance_ is an actual, real-life manifestation of a defined, recurring process. If Michael does a load of colored wash on February 7th, then this represents one instance of his laundry process. A process instance can only be executed, managed, and delivered. The process itself can be studied and optimized in order to improve. Identifying a process is not always easy. With our laundry example, the process is so simple, that we typically perceive it to be an errand - just another item on the to-do list waiting to be started, in progress, or marked off as "done". But if we put ourselves in the shoes of a kid doing laundry for the first time, each process step needs an explanation and some practice to learn. Similarly, in business, training and experience often lead to processes being perceived as errands over time - the apprentice checks the manual and the checklist quite frequently, while the experienced master can perform the process without giving it much further thought. In the corporate world, it is often very difficult to identify a process, owing to a higher degree of complexity in terms of people, functions, suppliers, customers, systems, and locations involved. Parts of the process, performing entities, and stakeholders are subject to frequent change. On top of that, individuals performing certain parts of the process often only see the task at hand, and lack a "total" perspective of the entire process. This perspective is required to understand and map out a process end-to-end. 03 · Practice ## The standard approach to managing work today In order to do work, we need to (1) capture what needs to be done, and (2) execute it. Humans have grown reasonably proficient at capturing errands and projects with to-do lists and project management systems. There is a whole body of literature and media devoted to the capture, execution, and optimization of this type of work. Do most of us still struggle with it? Absolutely. But this is due to the human condition - not because we don't know how to capture, execute, or optimize errands and projects. It gets more complicated when it comes to processes, because they typically involve collaboration between numerous functions, locations, organizations, and networks of people. In a typical company, there are thousands of process instances that need to be managed every day, and there is a lot of change that happens along the way. Considering that this type of work is so common, however, there is a surprising deficit of suitable tools designed to manage processes and their instances conveniently. It is extremely difficult to capture processes accurately since most of the time they are unique to each company, their people, systems, customers, and suppliers. 04 · Trade-offs ## The challenge of capturing a process It would certainly be possible to develop a new, customized tool from scratch - one that fits exactly to the specific way a given company works. However, this approach comes with several substantial costs: $$$ One-time build cost Custom engineering to design and ship the solution. ⌛ Opportunity cost Internal engineering capacity pulled away from the core business. ↻ Ongoing maintenance Processes evolve constantly - and every change needs re-engineering. New stakeholders and systems are also introduced, which need to be captured and connected to the solution again. Most companies fail outright to fully digitize their most core business processes. 05 · Status quo ## The working "status quo" So what does this general lack of appropriate tooling lead to? In most scenarios, a combination of task managers, status meetings, emails, spreadsheets, and calendars stand in as a makeshift solution to stay organized and deliver work. Though considered "the standard" by many, this approach is massively time-consuming to maintain, difficult to prepare, hard to track, leads to varying outcomes, and doesn't scale without introducing more and more layers of management. Bottom line: lots of resources are spent just to organize work, with the work itself still needing to be done. Large enterprises try to alleviate the problem with semi-customized workflow software, provided by external suppliers. Again: costly and time-consuming to establish and expensive to maintain. Today, teams working in the status quo system conclude that it has become increasingly more difficult to work together. It still remains unclear who needs to do what and when, keeping track of tasks and statuses is hard, and - with rapid digitization across industries - systems and processes change all the time. Without clear alignment, defined process management strategies, and adequate tooling, teams face unmanageable workloads, which no amount of hours in the office will fix. There are countless tools available to help you manage tasks and projects, but to capture and execute a process within the framework of a singular tool is much more challenging. On this piece [01   What is work?](#s1)[02   What is a process?](#s2)[03   The standard approach](#s3)[04   The challenge](#s4)[05   The status quo](#s5) Share [share ](https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fnextmatter.com%2Fopinions%2Fmeaning-of-work) [alternate\_email ](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fnextmatter.com%2Fopinions%2Fmeaning-of-work&text=What%20%22work%22%20actually%20means.%26nbsp%3B%20Why%20it%20matters%20for%20process%20management) [mail ](mailto:?subject=What%20%22work%22%20actually%20means.%26nbsp%3B%20Why%20it%20matters%20for%20process%20management&body=https%3A%2F%2Fnextmatter.com%2Fopinions%2Fmeaning-of-work) Keep reading ## See how Next Matter captures and executes real processes Turn recurring processes into orchestrated, auditable workflows - without a custom engineering build. 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